COSMOPOLITAN SHANGHAI, KEY SEAPORT OF CHINA
Chapei. Chapei borders upon the Soochow
Creek boundary and is just back of the for
eign district of Hongkew. This district,
before the recent bombardments, was some
what more modern and progressive than
the Native City region. Here, in Chapei,
were located large Chinese business con
cerns devoted to exporting and importing.
Here had sprung up offices, factories, and
printing establishments, among the last
named the Commercial Press,largest pub
lishing concern in China, valued at one and
a quarter million dollars. In this locality,
too, is the Shanghai railway station for
the Shanghai-Nanking line, used also for
the Shanghai-Hangchow-Ningpo road and
the short branch that extends to Woo
sung.
MODERN SHANGHAI BEGINS WITH THE
INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT
But the focus of all Shanghai is the for
eign settlements, for in them have been the
remarkable incentive and expanding force
that have built this modern seaport. First
allotted a portion of land on the south side
of Soochow Creek, following the Treaty of
Nanking, in 1842, when Shanghai was in
dicated as one of the five treaty ports,
British business established itself and ex
panded, digging drains and filling canals to
make the concession habitable.
Six years later France was conceded the
territory between the British concession
and the Native City, and only a few years
afterward Americans leased land in the
Hongkew district, which extends along the
Whangpoo water front north of Soochow
Creek, where the river makes a sharp curve
to the right (see page 313).
This so-called American Settlement was
never organized as such, but was incorpo
rated with the British district in 1863.
Thus came into being the International
Settlement, premier nucleus of modern
Shanghai. Other portions of land have
been added on the west, where old-timers
used to bag snipe in off days from their
offices.
The French chose to remain apart and
to-day continue to administer their own
concession as a separate unit.
The years have seen a fast-moving pano
rama since the early days when the Inter
national territorial fusion came into being,
received nourishment, and became what
has often been termed "The Model Settle-
ment."
The administration of the Inter
national Settlement has been in many ways
a unique experiment, perhaps without par
allel in any other place; and results make it
evident that the Shanghai Municipal Coun
cil has served the Settlement well.
The Council is composed of a group of
members elected by the taxpayers of Brit
ish, American, Japanese, and, more re
cently, Chinese nationality. The number
has been increased from time to time until
15 members are now included in the group
that directs the affairs of the Settlement of
1,008,000 people.
Paving, policing, planning-a multitude
of tasks face the paternal body which,
gratis, guards the interests of International
Shanghai. A similar, but smaller, task con
fronts the 17 other men who handle the
affairs of the French territory with its
nearly 435,000 inhabitants.
Because Shanghai has not always had
a peaceful career, troops of the four chief
foreign nationalities have been maintained
to give necessary protection to the resi
dents of the city. Shanghai has also had a
volunteer corps with a personnel of more
than 2,000, which was organized at the
time of the stress of the Taiping Rebellion,
in 1854, and has been mobilized at various
intervals of necessity during strikes and
when the pot of Chinese political affairs
has been boiling over.
Big, bustling Shanghai, this titan of com
merce in Far Asia, lives beyond the bound
aries of any one settlement or nationality;
it commands all of them together for its
life and trade. Well beyond three million
people are numbered in the districts that
form the whole of greater Shanghai.
SHANGHAI HAS FIFTY FOREIGN
NATIONALITIES
Cosmopolitan, too, as only one of the
world's largest seaports can be, it records
in its census 50 foreign nationalities. The
commercial capital can also call from its
midst representatives speaking practically
all the numerous dialects in China, if one
should ask for further confusion in the
linguistic babel.
Ningpo, which in earlier days of foreign
shipping trade was a fairly important port,
has declined to slight importance because
it has given its most progressive minds to
Shanghai's opportunities. Men from all
other localities have likewise been attracted.
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